Details from Sandusky report begin emerging

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HARRISBURG (AP) – A report from the state attorney general’s office was expected to be made public soon on the handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case and why it took so long to bring charges against the former Penn State assistant football coach.

Information about the report began emerging over the weekend, including an excerpt obtained by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and cited by the newspaper in a story published Saturday.

“There’s nothing in the available document record or witness interviews to support that Attorney General (Tom) Corbett or anyone else in the (attorney general’s) executive office at this time gave any instructions on how to conduct the investigation,” the excerpt said.

Corbett, Pennsylvania’s Republican governor who was attorney general when the investigation began, declined comment on it through aides. Former top deputies to Corbett in the office, including William H. Ryan Jr., currently the chairman of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, also declined comment or did not respond to requests for comment Sunday. Ryan served as acting attorney general for four months.

The attorney general’s office declined comment on the report and said it will be released in its full context when all the legal requirements have been met.

Attorney General Kathleen Kane promised an investigation into how the Sandusky case was handled during her successful 2012 bid to become Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor. During the campaign, the Democrat repeatedly questioned why it took nearly three years for charges to be filed against Sandusky.

In a Sept. 26, 2012, meeting with the editorial board of the Times-Tribune of Scranton, Kane suggested Corbett had political motive to slow down the investigation while he was running for governor because of generous campaign contributions flowing to him from the Penn State board of trustees and people linked to Sandusky’s charity, the Second Mile.

Kane last year appointed Widener Law School professor and former federal prosecutor Geoff Moulton to lead an investigation.

Corbett has said the successful prosecution of Sandusky is proof that the state investigation was effective and strongly denied suggestions that he did not want the investigation to become public while he was campaigning for governor in 2010. Corbett and investigators on the case have said a long investigation was necessary to build a rock-solid list of witnesses.

Sandusky, a Washington native, was arrested in November 2011, a year after Corbett was elected governor. He was convicted eight months later. He is currently serving his sentence in SCI-Greene.